Top Smart Contract Development Platforms

Smart Contracts is being widely integrated into multiple fields nowadays.

Why? Mainly because of its capacity to make existing processes more efficient and also its capability to perform beyond the geographical limitations! Some of the use cases of Smart Contracts include real estate sector, banking, finance, healthcare sector, etc.

Even this technology has grown to phase where even the small and mid-sized entrepreneurs can adopt this facility with their business.

Also, a lot of Smart Contract Development platforms have begun to emerge, mainly from the technology giants. There are some Smart Contract Development companies which help to build such platforms from scratch or even provide a white label solution.

This blog will be enlisting out some of the Top Smart Contract Development Platforms that we have right now.

Read below!

Why Companies Are Adopting Smart Contracts?

There are many advantages for Smart Contract Technology compared to the traditional methods. Some of them are the following:

Top Smart Contract Development Platforms

1. Hyperledger Fabric

Hyperledger Fabric project was founded by the Linux Foundation in the year 2015. This technological platform works in a similar format like the other Blockchain technologies. It has a distributed ledger, works using the Smart Contracts, and the transactions are managed by the peers in the system.

Hyperledger Fabric follows a modular architecture and hence allows the components on a plug-and-play basis. The major advantage of using a modular architecture is that it allows the developers to customize the application by the needs of various sectors like supply chain, healthcare, education, etc.

Some of their exclusive features include:

● Hyperledger Network is Permissioned Network.

● It’s open-source and hence completely free to use.

● They are supported by the technology giant IBM (International Business Machine).

● It makes use of the consensus algorithm of Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT), which should be met during every single transaction.

● Hyperledger Fabric makes use of a container technology called “chaincode” for hosting smart contracts.

● A single node of the Hyperledger Fabric may be having different roles or tasks like of an endorser, committer, and consenter.

● Programming Languages supported by this platform include Go and Java.

Disadvantages

● No Token System.

2. R3 Corda

R3 Corda is a Smart Contract Development Platform mainly used in the financial services sector. Likewise the Hyperledger Fabric, R3 Corda follows a Permissioned Network.

Some of their common features are as follows:

● It provides a high amount of scalability and privacy to the peers involved.

● The consensus algorithm followed by this smart contract development platform is called Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) algorithm. An agreement of consensus is made once the peers of the network called notary nodes meet the requirements. It helps to execute the transactions fast.

● In R3 Corda, Smart Contracts can even be mixed with certain legal clauses, and hence are known as Smart Legal Contracts. They make use of a Ricardian Contract (it’s a method of recording a document as a contract of law).

● The programming languages supported by this platform are Kotlin and Java.

3. Ethereum

Ethereum is considered as one of the Top Smart Contract Development Platforms that is available today, and most of the developers do prefer them over others. It was made live in the year 2015. Ethereum Smart Contract Development Platform offers a high degree of standardization and the support they provide are praise worthy!

They have published a well defined set of rules for the developers to follow, so that the smart contract development is much easier and less risky compared to other Smart Contract Development Platforms.

Another exciting feature of Ethereum Smart Contract Development Platform is that they have developed their own Smart Contract programming language, called Solidity.

A disadvantage of this platform is that it has been exposed security threats multiple times before.

Features of Ethereum

● Easy and free setup.

Own Smart Contract Programming Language – Solidity

Support team

Disadvantages

More expensive than other platforms

Certain security issues.

Poor quality smart contract code

4. NEM

NEM was introduced in the year 2015. This smart contract development platform is mainly for the Java lovers. It is written in Java, which is one of the most popular programming languages in the world.

NEM can process upto 100 transactions per second, which implies that its more fast and efficient compared to other platforms like Ethereum (Ethereum can process upto 15 transactions per second).

Their latest released version is named Catapult and thus makes it one of the most secure smart contract development platforms out there!

NEM Features

Developed in Java and hence much easier to deal with.

No special platform specific programming languages like Solidity.

Scalability

Highly Secure

Efficient and Quick.

Disadvantages:

Less Support

Not Decentralized entirely.

5 . Stellar

Stellar is one of the oldest Smart Contract Development Platforms that we have. It was founded in the year 2014 and was developed by the Stellar Development Foundation. It is much easier to use than the Ethereum and not as easy as Nem.

Features:

Perfect for ICOs

Inexpensive compared to Ethereum

User friendly platform

High performance

Disadvantages:

Complex Smart contract development is almost impossible.

Summary

Picking up the best in everything you do makes your jobs much easier, efficient and less risky. The case while dealing with complex areas like Smart Contract Development is also the same!

This article has tried to bring out some of the Top Smart Contract Development Platforms that we have in the market right now. Do go through and opt for the one which is most suitable for your business needs. Or you can even consult a leading Blockchain Solutions provider which is within your reach!

Vishnu Narayanan K

Vishnu Narayanan K is a Senior Content Writer at Infinite Open Source Solutions LLP. He is a vivid reader and immensely passionate about writing anything under this sky! Although an IT graduate, he likes to be engaged more in the creative world and to write about multiple topics in real simple words. His major areas of writing are covered in Infinitemlmsoftware blog